Florida's abortion clinics are dealing with an influx of harassment

PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."How Florida Became the Abortion Oasis of the South
Florida has a special place in the history of the abortion rights movement. In 1980, voters made it one of the few states to enshrine an express right to privacy in its constitution: “Every natural person has the right to be let alone and free from governmental intrusion into the person’s private life.” Four decades later, that protection is the major reason that Florida remains an important oasis for reproductive care. The state has 55 abortion clinics, more than seven other Southeastern states combined; from 2017 through 2021, total abortions surpassed 360,000. Only California and New York are believed to have higher counts.

In the past five years, more than 16,000 people traveled to Florida from other parts of the U.S. for abortion care. The increase in out-of-state patients was especially large during the pandemic, up a stunning 77 percent in 2020. Florida continues to allow abortions up to 24 weeks of pregnancy, for example, later than many states. Even a new 15-week ban that takes effect in July (after the Supreme Court ruling is expected to be finalized) isn’t nearly as draconian as the near-total bans that would go into effect in Texas, Oklahoma and about two dozen other states as soon as Roe is officially gone.

That reality – that a state where Republicans have long controlled every major lever of power had nearly 75,000 abortions last year – has been deeply frustrating to the national anti-abortion movement. Father Stephen Imbarrato, who calls himself the “Protest Priest,” is one of many activists who have swarmed to Florida in recent years. “If they were murdering 75,000 other people in any demographic, in any class, (lawmakers) surely would be acting differently,” he said. If they choose to do nothing, then they’re going to hear from me … and I’m going to make as much trouble for them as I can.”

But the protest movement’s impact has been almost impossible to measure. Now, in a first-of-its-kind analysis, Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting has found that police calls across the state related to clinic harassment, disturbance and violence doubled over the past six years.

A Woman’s Choice of Jacksonville was among the clinics with the biggest increases in police calls, tripled compared with 2016. At another provider, American Family Planning in Pensacola, calls jumped 400 percent.

At the Planned Parenthood in Fort Myers, a man tossed two Molotov cocktails into the clinic in October 2020 and later pleaded guilty to arson; in January, dozens of protesters blockaded the clinic’s entrance and refused to leave, and several were arrested."...